Dear SaaStr: What is the Most Typical Career Path to VP Sales in a B2B SaaS Company?
The most typical career path to becoming a VP of Sales in a B2B SaaS company usually involves a steady progression through sales roles, gaining experience at each level while demonstrating the ability to scale teams and processes.
Here’s how it generally looks:
1. Start as an SDR or Entry-Level Sales Rep
Most future VPs of Sales start as Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) or junior Account Executives (AEs). This is where you learn the fundamentals—prospecting, cold outreach, qualifying leads, and managing a pipeline. It’s the grind, but it’s where you build the foundation for everything else.
- Example Path: Month 0: Entry-level SDR screening inbound leads. Month 6: Promoted to SMB rep. Month 9: Becomes the top-performing rep in the SMB segment.
Sam Blond, ex-CRO of Brex started off as our first SDR. And Matt Plank, CRO at Rippling, started off as a junior AE. They worked their way rapidly up:
2. Progress to Mid-Market or Enterprise Sales
After proving yourself in an entry-level role, the next step is moving into mid-market or enterprise sales. This is where you learn to handle larger, more complex deals with longer sales cycles and multiple stakeholders. Success here demonstrates your ability to close high-value deals and manage strategic accounts.
- Key Skills Gained: Negotiation, managing complex sales processes, and understanding enterprise buyer dynamics.
3. Move into Sales Management
Once you’ve proven you can sell, the next step is managing a team. This is a critical transition because being a great individual contributor doesn’t automatically make you a great manager. As a sales manager, you’ll learn how to recruit, train, and coach reps, as well as how to forecast and hit team quotas.
- Example Path: Month 36: Promoted to manager, overseeing a team of 8. Month 40: Manages a team of 24.
4. Scale to Director or Senior Sales Leadership
After succeeding as a manager, you’ll likely move into a director or senior leadership role, overseeing multiple teams or regions. This is where you start to think more strategically—building scalable processes, aligning with marketing and customer success, and driving overall revenue growth.
- Key Skills Gained: Cross-functional alignment, scaling teams, and strategic planning.
5. Become a VP of Sales
By the time you’re ready to be a VP of Sales, you’ve likely spent 5-6 years climbing the ranks, gaining experience at every level. As a VP, your job is no longer about selling—it’s about building and scaling a revenue engine. You’ll focus on recruiting top talent, optimizing sales processes, and aligning with marketing and product to maximize revenue per lead 57.
- Key Responsibilities: Recruiting and retaining a high-performing team, setting strategy, and ensuring predictable revenue growth.
Key Traits of a Successful VP of Sales
- Recruiting Talent: The best VPs of Sales are always on the hunt for great reps. Sales is a headcount-driven business, and without the right team, you can’t hit your numbers.
- Hands-On Leadership: Early on, a VP of Sales needs to roll up their sleeves and help close deals, especially for key accounts. They need to spot issues before they escalate and coach their team to success.
- Strategic Thinking: As the company scales, the VP of Sales must shift from tactical execution to strategic planning—optimizing the sales funnel, aligning with marketing, and driving efficiency.
Why It Takes 5-6 Years (Best Case)
Even for rockstars, it typically takes 5-6 years to gain the experience needed to become a true VP of Sales. You need to master each step—selling, managing, scaling—before you’re ready to lead a sales organization. Skipping steps often leads to failure because you won’t have the depth of experience needed to handle the challenges of the role.
